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Theoretical Shoe Inserts Could Power Your Gadgets
In his first accepted submission, Anon8---) writes "As published on nature.com, a process called electrowetting, 'in which a conductive liquid droplet, placed on an electrode, is physically deformed by an applied electric charge,' could be used to provide 10 watts of juice to smartphones and other gadgets as you walk. 'The technique depends on the use of a dielectric material — which is usually an insulator but that can be polarized in an electric field — to coat the electrode. When the dielectric is charged the droplet can wet the surface more easily, and deforms. In his system, Krupenkin runs this process backwards, using the changing physical form of liquid drops between dielectric-coated plates to generate charge and therefore electrical power.' So far, Krupenkin and Ashley Taylor have been able to produce a few milliwatts of power along tiny channels a few millimeters wide. They have patented the idea and are now concentrating on scaling up the device and designing a shoe to contain it."
Lots of potential, although I think the idea has no legs. Please let me know if you disagree and your reasons for doing so.
For obvious reasons.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
A theoretical shoe insert won't power anything.
Do you have any better hostages?
...chargin'
one of these days these boots are gonna charge your gadgets too.
Could they maybe put this in my chair? I don't think putting it in my shoes would do very much good.
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
I can see this being used to get kids off their asses and at least moving around some.
Confiscate your child's phone charger, and make it so this is the only way they can charge said phone.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
He hopes a device like this could be useful in developing countries, where electricity isn't always as plentiful or accessible as it is in more industrialized parts of the world.
Anonymous Coward wrote:
I think the idea has no legs.
Incidentally, a lot of people in developing countries where landmines were used also have no legs. I wonder whether this could be useful for incorporation into crutches or walking gloves.
Warning: Blatantly stereotyped joke ahead. The easily offended should stop reading now.
Okay, the rest of you: This is America! Forget shoes, we need to attach these things to forks!
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
They have patented the idea and are now concentrating on scaling up the device and designing a shoe to contain it
Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (plus some of his older books as well) helped kill a patent for waterbeds IIRC. Perhaps Frank Herbert's Dune can be used to help kill this patent. Fremen stillsuit boots generated power from walking.
Hook this up to a robot and use the generated power to power the robot. Name the robot Perpetua.
or free energy. Why do people keep looking for ways to power stuff by (inefficiently) robbing it from other places? The last two posted here were shirts that flexed to power gadgets, and roads that had bumps in them to run road lighting.
However you do this, (1) you're going to make something else require more energy, and (2) introducing additional energy loss due to conversion. In this case, if you put some material in the soles to gather mechanical energy it's just going to make your feet a little more tired.
I see something of a relation between this and sales tax... sales taxes are applied to when you're already spending money and it just shaves a little off that doesn't look like it mattered too much. Same thing here, just making your commute a little more tiring with the idea that you won't really notice. Shoe power doesn't create energy any more than sales taxes create money.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Remember those children's sneakers from the 90's that would flash LED's as the wearer walked?
/* No Comment */
There's a reason we walk on rubber soles instead of wooden. A rubber sole deforms, and stores energy in the rubber. A bit later it releases that energy again, and pushes your foot back up.
That is energy efficient, and also the reason why the Achilles tendons are so important for running. They too deform end store/release energy.
So what happens when you tap into this energy? Well, then the rubber would no longer make your foot bounce back. So you'd have to put more effort in your leg muscles to move your foot back up and forward. I imagine it would feel like walking on sand: easy to step into, but more effort to step out of.
poor some money into this.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That sounds like you're going to have a bunch of Ethiopians run in circles to power your IPhone in promises for food...
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
If/when inductive charging becomes ubiquitous (RIP Touchstone) I hope that'll be the case.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Amazing! This must be the first time that raw theoretical power has been harnessed to do something! If this works we should finally be able to get something useful out of all those academics.
No we can all act like Thor with our lightning drop kicks!
Somewhat immaterial. Unless you are taking a walk specifically to charge your devices (possible I suppose, but probably unlikely), most of us spend at least several hours a day moving around via a foot power. The energy created by our our regular controlled impacts with the ground is normally simply lost; this would allow the capture of at least some of it. In the third world environments they're targeting, people walk even more. I can also see this being great for hiking, camping, and all sorts of outdoor activities that can leave you far away from power sources.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
Oftentimes, the energy we "steal" from someplace else would have gone to waste anyway. Perhaps the energy here is normally dissipated as heat? If so, reclaiming it won't make you any more tired, and may even make you more comfortable.
I wear actual shoes.
I would love to have my theoretical gadgets powered with theoretical electricity from these theoretical shoe inserts.
Sorry, I thought the above was responding to my original post. Slashdot somehow managed to list it as such. First time I ever noticed such a bug.
Yes I am aware of tablets used in 2001.
I walk 3.2 miles round trip every day for my commute... Maybe I could plug my shoes in at the end of the day and sell that back to the electric company?
Sarcasm is the recourse of a weak mind...
--
I'll pass on this technology for shoes. I'd either have to strap my phone to my shoes, or run cables in my clothes. Either method doesn't impress me.
Two Rules For Success:
1) Never tell people everything you know.
power armor shouldn't be too far behind!
most of us spend at least several hours a day moving around via a foot power.
You'd better watch what you say. You're posting to slashdot, you know.
You don't patent fucking idea. You patent inventions. You patents processes.
YOU DO NOT PATENT IDEAS
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Making it a shoe binds you to just one pair. With insoles, you can use them all the time.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
...stillsuits really should be open hardware.
How much will these cost?
Can they cope with getting wet? Of course ahoes get damp and sweaty anyway, but in the case of a rainstorm and deeper than you think puddles they can get soaked.
For me, walking is not just a means of exercise , it is a means of transport - I don't own a car you insensitive clod.
in a country where obesity stands at more than 30% of the population and overweight citizens comprise 70% of the population,
you'd be crazy to think this "energy source" was capable of generating 3 watts of electricity, let alone 10.
Sell it to india, most americans cant eat lunch without breaking a sweat.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Electro-wetting... is that like code for peeing in your pants? I swear some day I'll read the article :p
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
I would love this for my running shoes. It would be great if I could power, or possibly even charge, the mp3 player or gps devices that are used while running. This isnt specifically taking a walk to charge the things, but it is movement that I already do that could be used with no downside.
Crystals already give mW of power when deformed. It's used to weigh your fat ass on a digital scale.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Or phone manufacturers could just stop being dicks and go with mini/micro USB (depending on form factor, obviously some phones wouldn't handle a mini.) Serves dual purpose as a data port for those of us that actually like modding our phones. No inductive charging required, though, it would be handy to have as a supplemental option.
Cool post bro, highfive \o
I was thinking the same thing. Also, for hiking, you can power your GPS device with the walking movement you're already making to perform the hike. I rarely run far enough to actually run out of juice on my phone (which is also my MP3 player and GPS), but I've cut it close a few times when the thing was already low when I started. (For those that wonder, we don't use GPS to figure out where we're running, at least I don't and I doubt many people do, it's just a nice way to keep accurate track of distance.)
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
Wiki mentions mercury in the history section.... Goes on to say any hydrophobic liquid conductor. Not a lot of those I don't think.
Does anyone know what liquids work best for this application?
The world produces a lot of excess mercury and it would be cool to see a new application for it -- despite any health issue associated with the substance.
Just saying.
Ever heard of regenerative breaking? "Free" energy. You need to brake so you might as well store the energy instead of trying desperately to vent it as heat.
Shoes are much the same. Most shoes have a suspension mechanism. When your foot lands it is compressed, movement is turned into heat. If you turn the movement into something else, the energy would be still be dissipated but this time into something more useful.
It isn't free energy strictly speaking, it is just using energy that you would otherwise waste.
Of course, the shoes might also work like a generator in which case they use some energy but hey, most people can afford to spend a little bit more. Or are you that afraid of excersise? Oh wait, this is slashdot. We are!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Just put these inserts between fault lines
In soviet Russia, God creates you!
Well, I can buy a 50 pound bag of rice locally for about $40. According to the nutrition label, it provides 170 kcal (711 kJ) per 45 grams, working out to 15.8 kJ per gram. That's about $0.00011 per kJ.
I pay, on average, about $0.15 per kWh for grid electricity in the Northeastern US. That's about $0.000042 per kJ, an order of magnitude cheaper than my rice.
Well it seems the people in most need of this would be geeks and they are the people least likely to exercise enough to charge their devices. I run far enough to charge a device but I don't want to carry a device on the long runs especially in the middle of summer. The sweat would short everything.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Why only geeks. Hikers and runners put these to use in practical ways in these two comments. This doesnt have to charge a wearable computer, and besides, the concept of a high power draw computer is outdated... it is now called a phone. Plenty of hikers and joggers could use this.
I dont actually carry my phone with me because I dont want the weight, but I could be convinced to. If I wore a small camel-back I would not even notice the phone back there, and it would be safe from sweat.
Funny sweat issue I cant get around ... the ear buds keep dieing because they get so wet. I cant wait for cooler days.
exactly. I use the nike+ in my shoe, but it is so inaccurate that it borders on useless. It gives me a rough idea, but I use a mapping service like mapmyrun, or a gps (when I feel like carrying the phone with me) to really know how far I have gone.
a microsecond? Generally batteries and the electronics that keep them from turning into bombs do not like pulses of unregulated current.
SO where are you going to hide the capacitors and regulator?
The summary clearly states that the power is generated by theoretical shoe inserts. Therefore one only need to walk in theory to generate power.
I don't have that problem with regular earbuds too often, but I can't wear the ones with a microphone that come with phones. Those cause great hilarity since they can partially control the phone, so when they get shorts from sweat you get all kinds of skips, pauses, and other weird stuff.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
One approach to energy harvesting is to increase the efficiency of human walking and capture the energy the human would have expended walking. This has actually been demonstrated with an energy harvesting backpack. The amount of power the human should consume carrying the backpack and doing work on the generator was found to be more than the amount of power the human actually consumes.
So in other words, you still have to pay for your lunch, but you get more for your money.
see "Harvesting Energy by Improving the Economy of Human Walking," for more
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/309/5741/1686.short
Will promptly have you back scattered, strip searched, anal probed and put on the Terrorist Watch List if they catch you with these.
Going back to the RC Heli forum. Bye.
"Theoretical Shoe Inserts Could Power Your Gadgets"
I suspect that a theoretical doughnut could only satisfy theoretical hunger.
Wonder what wonders are available if they were Hypothetical rather than Theoretical?
Nate
Haven't pretty much all the phone vendors other than apple gone with micro USB already due to pressure from the EU and china?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
theoretical ponies that can crap lightning and power a city.
Which shoes are those? Shoes usually have lots of foam rubber / air / gel cushions to absorb impact (energy), not propel you skyward. And then there's all the many dress shoes for both men and women which don't do much absorbing or springing.
Imagine the TSA's reaction when you've got electronics AND liquids in the sole of your shoe!
I fail to see how a theoretical anything could power something of mine. Don't you need an actual physical something to charge anything? Or is it the other way around, where you need a physical anything to charge something? Oh, I get so confused. But I'm pretty sure that theoretical won't cut it and you'll need physicality there somewhere.
That is all.
USB is certainly more widely used than it used to be, but I think you can still find plenty of instances of proprietary connectors. To my memory USB is more widely used in the smartphone arena, while older style candybar/clamshell phones still have the proprietary connectors. I'm not certain though, I don't exactly keep up with cell phone technology, so you could be right. I believe my general point still stands though, USB paired with inductive charging seems the most logical approach.
Cool post bro, highfive \o
Once again this type of silly invention pops up. No normal person would use it, except for a work out. we're talking of robbing 30% or so of the energy a human uses to walk. A person in peak athletic shape can make 75W for a length of time, that's 1/10 of a horsepower. The rest of us would get quickly tired. That's why these "walk to generate" electricity devices mostly go nowhere since the 60s (and maybe someone older can tell me if they saw them in 50s or 40s)
as an engineer, you should no better then to not RTFA:
"up to 10 watts of power is lost as heat each time a foot hits the ground. Mobile devices such as phones and laptops use between 1 and 15 watts, so harnessing our 'foot power' would make a notable difference for consumers."
I added the bold.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Danger is my middle name! I hope they invent the Cone of Silence next. Always wanted one of those.
In ye olde days, you had to have a working prototype to patent something. These numb nuts just patented something they haven't even figured out how to do yet, and now they're selling snake oil vapors to get funding for R&D.
"So far, Krupenkin and Ashley Taylor have been able to produce a few milliwatts of power along tiny channels a few millimeters wide. They have patented the idea and are now concentrating on scaling up the device and designing a shoe to contain it."
I assume it would have springs, or more rubber, to compensate. Which would slightly increase a) the weight of the shoe, and b) the carbon "footprint" of making the shoe. It's the latter (b) that troubles me, and the latter that media/journalists often ignore. The amount of energy required to mine, refine, melt and mold a battery (like in a Prius) can be more than the battery holds or saves in its useful lifetime. Shoes wear out, and if these become like disposable tablets (whose batteries cannot be replaced), then it will be a net loss for society/carbon/energy. Visit the OK Tedi Mine in Papua New Guinea on Google Earth to see where all the shiny copper we are using comes from (hint: rainforest with runoff of mine tailings into coral reefs).
Gently reply
Yeah, I hope that was just newspeople oversimplification. Most likely they mean he used a resistor as a load to measure the power output (which technically would convert the alternating charge - a currentless electron accumulation that by definition is doing no "work" - to an alternating current at a voltage that can be expressed in terms of power (watts)).
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
A fully sealed phone (bluetooth data transfer and inductive charging) that's really watertight (and not prohibitively expensive) would be cool.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.